PART ONE HUNDRED NINE
“And this is why we aren’t ready to be parents…” I slurred as the pair of us lay in bed on top of the duvet, our wrists cuffed together.
“Here we thought getting married in Vegas was ridiculous,” laughed Aston. To say we were both still feeling our drink was an understatement. If anything, I was now feeling drunker than I had the whole night, making the handcuff situation incredibly hilarious.
“What are we gonna do?” I asked, shaking the cuffs so both our wrists jiggled.
“I could try and break them?” said Aston, “I think I’ve got a hammer somewhere.”
“You are not hammering anywhere near my hand mister! Especially after the number of vodka shots that were done!”
“What other option do we have?” he asked, pulling our wrists towards his face so he could inspect the handcuffs even though we were laying in the dark.
“We could try to pick the lock?” I said.
“Good idea!” Aston scrambled out of bed, pulling me with him as he went down to the kitchen. He dug through a few drawers, trying to find something that would fit in the lock hole, but failing miserably.
“What about a hairpin?” I asked, as I stood next to him.
“Yeah!” he said, pulling me back upstairs.
I pulled a hairpin out of my bag and tried to fit it into the lock, but my hand-eye coordination was severely off and I kept missing.
“Let me try,” said Aston, plucking the pin from my hand and promptly dropping it on the ground. He bent down to pick it up, but made no progress on his lock.
“I don’t know what to do!” I cried as tears started to prick my eyes. I slouched down onto the floor, pulling Aston with me.
“Hey, don’t cry,” he said, touching my knee gently.
“I can’t help it,” I said, “I’m frustrated, I’m drunk, and I just ruined your birthday!”
“You didn’t ruin my birthday,” said Aston, his hand still on my knee as we sat on the floor face to face. Our cuffed hands awkwardly resting between us.
“You don’t think me getting us handcuffed together for eternity is ruining your birthday?” I frowned.
“No,” said Aston smiling and shaking his head back and forth, “Although I do admit it was a crazy moment, you did it to save me from those girls, remember?” I smiled faintly at this while picking at the carpet with my free hand. “Don’t be upset Jess, I quite like your crazy side, and this will definitely be a good story when all is said and done.”
I snorted with laughter as I looked up to see Aston smiling at me, his eyes somewhat bloodshot from the alcohol.
“Love you,” I whispered, leaning forward and pressing my lips sweetly against his.
“Love you too,” he replied, “Now what do you say we get into bed and try to sleep the rest of this off, figure it out in the morning?”
“Ok,” I said, standing up from the ground and letting him lead me first into the bathroom where we awkwardly took turns getting ready to go to bed. It was certainly one of those moments that would only make us stronger as a couple.
“Now then, into the bed,” said Aston, leading me back out to the bed.
“Our bed,” I smiled.
“Oh yes,” he grinned, pushing me down onto the bed and climbing in on top of me.
It didn’t take long for our innocent ‘going to bed’ scheme to turn into something completely different. Aston was clearly still interested in getting a little birthday action, and I was only to willing to oblige. Luckily being in a bed made it slightly easier than when we’d been in the bathroom. Or maybe it was because we’d already navigated the cuffs before?
--
I woke up the next morning feeling like death. My head was pounding from the hangover and my arm was pretty much numb due to how I’d slept on it to accommodate the handcuffs. And of course, I really needed the toilet.
I turned in bed to see Aston completely passed out, there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to rouse him easily.
Which put me in quite the predicament.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I sighed, lifting our wrists in the air and inspecting the handcuffs again. I played with them for a few minutes before giving up and flopping my hand back down on the bed, catching my thigh gently with the metal of the cuff around my wrist.
“Ow!” I yelped, pulling the handcuff back up to look at, trying to find which part scratched me.
And then I saw it, the quick release.
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud as I flicked the quick release and my wrist was immediately freed. Of course there was no key! You didn’t need them with these handcuffs!
I scrambled out of bed and went to the toilets, cleaning my teeth and then grabbing some clothes out of my suitcase to change into, my dress from the night before sufficiently rumpled.
Grinning to myself I climbed back onto the bed, playing with the handcuff on Aston’s wrist as he continued to sleep, not noticing anything.
And then another crazy idea hit me. But what I hoped was good crazy.
Jumping up I took the free half of the handcuffs and clipped them onto the bed so Aston was cuffed in place. I hoped that he wouldn’t catch on to the quick release as quickly as I had.
Grabbing a hoodie off the floor as well as my coat and shoes I ran downstairs, making sure to grab Aston’s phone off the side table so he wouldn’t be woken up by any sort of alarm he set. And then I got to work.
It took a trip down to the shops to start things out, collecting all the things on my mental list and then a few extra things that I happened upon while out.
With my arms full I ran back to the house, kicking my shoes off and getting to work in the kitchen. As I was humming along to myself I heard shouts coming from upstairs.
“JESS!!”
Grinning to myself I ignored them as I went to set the table in the formal dinning room, making sure that everything was exactly in place.
“JESSICA REGOOO!”
A buzzing went off in the kitchen, prompting me to go back and make sure I hadn’t burnt anything. Surprisingly I hadn’t, and grinning to myself I pulled out the food and set it to cool a bit.
“JESSICA I SWEAR TO GOD!”
I smirked at this, deciding it was probably time to head upstairs.
“Hey,” I smiled as I leant against the door frame.
“How the hell did you get out of these?” asked Aston, struggling against the handcuff around his wrist.
“Not by doing that,” I grinned, wandering over to the bed and climbing on.
“How then?”
“Good morning to you too,” I smiled, kneeling down next to him.
“Hi,” he said, laying back on his pillow, “You gonna help me out?”
“In a minute,” I smiled, climbing over him so I was sat on his stomach.
“What you doing?” he asked.
“Do you know what today is?”
“Well yesterday was my birthday so today is…”
“Valentine’s,” I grinned, “Will you be my Valentine?”
“If you unlock me from the bed,” said Aston, leaning up so his lips were just inches from mine.
“I think that can be arranged,” I said, “Although I’m surprised that you’re in this position, begging to be let out.”
“Shocking, I know,” he replied with a smirk, “But I have a feeling you have other plans for me right now.”
“You might be right,” I said, closing the gap between our lips and kissing him tenderly. “Thought I’d make it up to you for ruining your birthday.”
“You didn’t!”
I just smiled at him faintly, leaning forward and unhitching the quick release.
“Seriously?” asked Aston as his wrist was freed.
“You clearly slept through me laughing my head off,” I replied, “Now go clean your teeth!”
I pushed him out of the bed where he ran through his morning routine, returning to me a few minutes later in fresh clothes.
“Come on,” I said, grabbing his hand and taking him downstairs to the dinning room. There were candles all along the table and two places set next to each other at the far end. A bottle of champagne was chilling in some ice and fresh fruit and orange juice were set on the table along with some bakery goods. “There’s frittata too,” I grinned.
“You are too perfect,” sighed Aston, pulling me towards him for a quick kiss.
“Happy Valentine’s Day,” I said, pulling away from him and grabbing the champagne, popping it and pouring out two glasses. I handed one to Aston and then held mine up for a toast, “To being just crazy enough!”
PART ONE HUNDRED AND TEN
The rest of my time in London was absolutely perfect. Valentine’s Day we spent in the house, cuddled up and chatting. We were both a little too hungover to make more out of the day, and really we just wanted to enjoy one another’s company. We spent a lot of the day discussing what it was going to be like living together, talking through the logistics of my move and that. I’d picked maybe the worst time for it, right when Aston was leaving to go on Tour, but we figured it would work itself out.
That night Aston cooked for me, attempting to make lasagna. Unfortunately, it ended up burnt because we may or may not have gotten distracted, enjoying our time together. So, obviously, we ended up ordering in instead. But it was so worth it!
The next day was our unofficial six-month anniversary. For the day Aston opted on taking me out around town, shopping a bit and having a nice meal for lunch in a ritzy hotel. He claimed that he was attempting to spoil me, but I kept declining his offers to buy me nice things. Of course being out and about meant getting papped a few times here and there, but I didn’t really care anymore. At least they weren’t calling me his mistress or whatever!
The evening of our anniversary was spent out, a nice meal and some low key clubbing with a few friends. It was the perfect way to end my weekend in London, although we did get harassed a bit by Aston’s band mates for the handcuff escapade. Who could blame them though?
I flew back to New York the day after our anniversary, and was back in the office the day after that despite my jet lag. Every time I got back to the office after some time away I came to dislike it more and more, this was no exception.
“I’m taking you out to lunch,” I told Maggie as I let myself into her office the morning I was back, a big grin on my face.
“Baby news perhaps?” she grinned.
“Hmm…” I said skeptically, turning on my heel and letting the door slip shut behind me.
I spent the morning working away on my last few projects, hoping to get them done sooner rather than later so I could get myself back to London, for good.
“You ready to go eat?” asked Maggie as she slipped into my office bang on noon.
“Give me a minute,” I smiled, turning back to my computer and adding one last bit to the website I was working on. Didn’t want to forget what I had planned out, and I didn’t mind torturing her a little bit.
After I’d saved my work we walked downstairs and down the street to a café that we frequented, for the homemade soup. We ordered our meals and then sat down, waiting for them to be delivered.
“So spill babe! Mini Merrygold on the way?” she asked.
“Well…” I sighed, trying to drag it out just a little bit.
“Tell me!!!”
“No,” I smiled, “False alarm.”
“Aww no way? Are you ok with that?”
“Yeah, I think I am,” I said, fiddling with the straw on my drink, “Some of the events of the last few days may have proven that Aston and I aren’t quite fit to be responsible parents yet…”
“What did you do?” she asked, a look of shock on her face.
I recounted the handcuff tale to her, laughing away to myself as I realized how absolutely ridiculous it was. Of course we’d get ourselves up to that sort of trouble. Who else could manage that, really?
“So then that’s it? Nothing more?” asked Maggie, after I was done.
“You know there’s more,” I replied cryptically.
“What do you mean?”
“Mags…” I said, giving her raised eyebrows.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she lied.
“Maggie, the boss told me what you told him about me.”
“Oh,” she said, a sheepish look on her face, “Don’t be mad at me.”
“How can I be mad at you?” I asked, “You went from being adamantly against Aston and I being a couple to being our number one supporter.”
“You guys just seem made for each other,” shrugged Maggie, “And I saw first hand how emotional you got over everything. I don’t know if you feel this way, but you’re my best friend. Of course I’ll look out for you.”
I grinned at Maggie as she said this, tears prickling my eyes. Ignoring the food that was in front of us I got up from my seat and went to her side of the table, leaning down and wrapping my arms around her, “You’re my best friend too,” I told her.
She grinned back up at me, wrapping her arms around me and hugging me back. “Now then you have news don’t you?” she asked, as she pushed me back to my seat.
“I do,” I said, finally digging into my food, “I hate to do this to you…”
“You’re going to London?!?” she squealed.
“Yeah…” I said, a big smile on my face.
“Jess, I’m so happy for you,” she said, “I know this is going to be so good for you!”
“Thanks Mags,” I smiled, “It should be rather good.”
We sat and chatted about work things for a bit, mostly about when my last day in New York was going to be and what I was going to be doing in London.
“You didn’t even ask the big question!” I laughed as we left the café, my arm linked with Maggie’s.
“What’s that?”
“Aston’s reaction?”
“Oh yeah!” said Maggie excitedly, “What did he say?”
“Well…” I said, a smile playing on my lips, “He asked me to move in with him!”
“Wait what?!?” asked Maggie, stopping in her tracks.
“You heard,” I said, pulling her along.
“Oh Jess,” she laughed, wrapping her arms around me again and hugging me tight.
“Not gonna lie it sort of helped us when we got knocked back a bit by the pregnancy thing. But I think its going to be really good.”
“So this is like it for you, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“He’s the one?”
“Most definitely,” I grinned, “We’re just going to take this a step at a time, do it all right this time.”
“Well you better ask me to be in the wedding, that’s all I’m gonna say,” said Maggie as we walked back into the office.
“Don’t get too ahead of yourself,” I replied with a wink.
I spent the afternoon working away, happy to have my news off my chest. I’d called Nicole after I’d had lunch with Maggie, filling her in on my news as well, and receiving a similar response. It was quite the relief not to be hiding things, able to talk freely about my life.
“Jess!” shouted Maggie after me as I left the building. I turned on the sidewalk and waited for her.
“What’s up?”
“I’m throwing you a going away party,” she declared.
“Ok,” I said, “You don’t have to, but…”
“But I want to!” she replied excitedly, “It’ll be fun, maybe a cocktail hour kind of thing with all of our work friends and a few others?”
“Whatever you see fit,” I grinned.
“I’ll think about it,” she replied, “I’ve got a few weeks to get everything together. Anyways, see you later!” she shouted, heading off in the opposite direction as me towards her apartment.
As I let myself into my apartment that night I couldn’t help but grin to myself. Excited about the future, the big move only a few weeks away.